Sunset Companions Re-Posted
by Meepalicious
Summary: Maglor, in modern-day Middle Earth, meets someone he does not expect. Following the unlikely meeting of two who seem to have more in common than either originally thought, a friendship is formed. Two-shot. Revised and largely re-written.
1. Chapter 1

Sunset Companions

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Silmarillion, or any of Tolkien's other works. The OC is mine, that's about it. Please don't sue! You wouldn't get much anyway. **

He sat alone near the water's edge with a small harp in his lap and looked out over the Sea. The Sun was beginning to set in the west. He sighed and turned his gaze to the extensive beach on which he sat.

Earlier in theday, the place had been overcrowded with people of all kinds. It was all but empty now. Few people still wandered the boardwalk, enjoying the breeze that came off the water. None took notice of the figure sitting near the shore.

He sighed again and, turning his head to the bright, busy, smog-filled city not far from the other end of the beach. He looked away and pondered the fate of Men, as he often did when he did not want to remember days too far gone.

_It is a strange and sad fate. The tales of days long gone have passed into legend and myth, and more recently, fiction. New beliefs have arisen, conflicted and changed. Men have changed. They are self centered beings. The advancements of their technology have changed them. They fill every waking moment with activity and work and forget what truly matters in their short lives. _He mused.

With these sorts of thoughts in mind, he took up his harp and began to play. There were still few people on the beach, and so he did not sing. He did not have to, the music of his harp told volumes of the grief and sadness and regret that he felt.

*Page Break*

Her family had flown several hours across the country to get to the city. Already, she did not like it there. It was loud and bright and she could not see the stars as she could at home. They had flown to California for her cousin's wedding and would be there for two weeks. _I love my cousin, I really do. But why does she have to live in a place like this? _She wondered.

She, her parents and her two younger sisters had walked along the boardwalk for a while. She decided that she liked that aspect of the place. She was alone with her thoughts and the ocean breeze was a welcome change from the stuffy city behind her.

Her younger sisters had soon grown bored and her parents had gone to get them ice cream at the food court. She had said she would be down by the water if they needed her. She walked down to the other side of the boardwalk.

All of a sudden, she heard music. It was beautiful and tragic and even a bit haunting. The girl soon found herself struggling not to cry, such was the power the music had over her as she listened. Her curiosity eventually got the better of her and she left the boardwalk to follow the sound. The sight she found surprised her and at the same time increased her curiosity.

There was a man with long dark hair, sitting by the ocean's edge playing a small harp. To the girl's eyes, he seemed unaware of her presence. She watched him for a moment. _Would it be odd if I walked over and talked to him? He seems rather lonely. _She thought. She concluded that it would be a bit odd. However, she did not care for that and approached the man.

"It's a beautiful song you were playing." She said, walking up to him.

He turned his head towards her, not surprised in the least. The man's eyes caught the girl's attention first. They were a dark grey color and held many years' worth of grief and regret. Yet, deep under all of that, the girl could see a spark, a flame hidden in the man's eyes. _Hmm…I suppose fascinating would be an appropriate word to describe them. _The girl thought.

"Thank you." The man replied softly. His voice sounded, to him, a bit raspy from disuse. Though if it truly was, the girl took no notice. Men did not talk to him often anymore and in the confines of his mind, he wondered why the girl had approached him. "What brings you here at this late hour?" he asked after a silence that was quite awkward, in which the girl sat down in the sand beside him.

"My family is up on the boardwalk, and my younger sisters were getting restless. Then I heard your music and I guess my curiosity got the better of me." She replied with a shrug.

_Hmmm. This young woman seems very different from others her age that I have seen. Teenagers, I believe they are called now. _The harpist thought to himself. Another awkward silence ensued, as the harpist did not say anything in reply and the girl did not know what else to say.

"What is your name?" she asked finally. The harpist wondered for a brief moment if he should tell her his true identity. After debating it for a time, he decided that there would be no real harm in telling this odd mortal girl his name.

"Maglor." He stated, studying the girl's face for her reaction. He winced internally when a bit of recognition and no small amount of surprise showed in the girl's eyes. _Very different from other teenagers indeed. Not many have read the tales of Beleriand. _He concluded. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Veronica. My younger sisters sometimes call me Ronny, because they can't say my whole name right yet. My dad does it sometimes too because his name is Ron. It annoys my mom." The girl replied. _Why am I telling him this? _She thought, furrowing her eyebrows slightly. He nodded.

The girl looked around for a bit, taking in from the surrounding beach. Maglor concluded after a moment two things. First, that this girl was likely not from the area and was visiting for some reason. And second, that she was a bit strange. _Not that I am one to talk about strange behavior. _He thought upon drawing this conclusion.

"You do not seem to be from around here." Maglor commented after a few minutes. Veronica shrugged and made a face.

"I'm not. I don't really like it here. It's too loud and stuffy in the city. There are too many people. I don't like people." She replied quietly.

"Why do you not like people?" Maglor asked, wondering if her reasons for not interacting much with the race of Men were similar to his.

"People are mean, generally. They don't care about the important things like friends and family and all the little things in life that make it worth living. People are generally self-centered and, from my experience, very obnoxious. Technology is making humankind dumber. All one really needs to know how to do anymore is how to look something up on the internet!" The girl exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air in her annoyance.

Maglor was surprised to say the least. Indeed, her reasons for disliking people were quite similar to his. _She is a very intelligent girl to be able to recognize this at her young age. _He thought.

"I'm sorry. I ranted there for a minute." Veronica stated when Maglor did not reply. He turned and looked sharply at her.

"Do not apologize. You are right. I am quite impressed that you recognize these things at your young age, especially with technology making people dumber, as you put it." Maglor told her. She nodded. "How old are you?" he asked.

"I'm fifteen. My sisters are twins, and they're six." Veronica answered, again asking herself why she was telling him about her family.

"Fifteen? You seem much more mature than the average fifteen-year-old. You are wise beyond your years and seem very intelligent." Maglor complimented.

"T-thanks. You seem pretty wise yourself." The girl said honestly. Maglor chuckled.

"I am also very, _very _old. I should think I would seem wise." Maglor replied.

"Why do you stay here?" Veronica asked eventually. "You seem like you're waiting for something. What?"

"I stay on these shores because I do not think I would be welcome in Aman, even if the Valar decided to let me come back." Maglor sighed. Veronica nodded solemnly.

"You didn't answer the second question." She observed. Maglor smiled slightly.

"It seems that some foolish part of me hopes that someday a ship will come out of the West and I will be able to return home. It is not very likely, though I cannot help hoping." He replied after a long silence.

"It's not a bad thing to hope. I think it's a sign of faith." Veronica mused. Maglor raised an eyebrow in surprise. Again, he was impressed and a bit intrigued by the wisdom this young woman seemed to possess.

Soon, Veronica found herself having a long conversation with the elf. Though she did not mind much. She found he was decent company and that the two had similar opinions on the race of Men at the very least. _Hmm. I wonder if Mom and Dad will let me come back tomorrow. I like talking to Maglor. _She thought.

Maglor soon found out that he was correct and that Veronica had read the tales of Beleriand. However, she did not judge him based upon what she had read and for that he was grateful. As he conversed with her, Maglor came to realize that this strange human girl had more in common with him than he thought.

_It is rather comforting to know that there are still those, however few, who know what is truly important in the world, and who are willing to put differences and past events aside to try and make friends. I believe she has a bright future ahead of her. _He thought. 

Unbeknownst to Veronica, her parents had noticed where she was. Her mother had taken the young twins to the nearby playground and her father was watching them from the boardwalk. After a while, Veronica was called back to her family so they could leave.

She said good-bye to Maglor before she left, promising to come back the following evening at the same time. Maglor then had a brief moment in which he felt inclined to joke, and said he would hold her to that promise. The girl laughed a bit and waved to him as she rushed across the beach to where her father was waiting.

*Page Break*

True to her word, Veronica had returned the next night and talked with Maglor. In fact, she returned to that spot on the beach every night as long as she was in California. Veronica found herself opening up to Maglor and, with a small bit of curiosity, began to consider him a friend. Maglor, to his own surprise, found himself enjoying the girl's company and considered her a friend as well in time. The two talked about what Veronica's life was like at her home across the country and Maglor was continually surprised by her intelligence and extreme difference from others her age.

"I'm going to come back." She told him decidedly on the night before she returned home. "Every year until I can't make the cross-country trip anymore."

"I look forward to seeing you again, my friend." Maglor had replied.

"Will you teach me how to play a harp when I come back?" She asked. Maglor smiled broadly. She looked at him curiously. _If there is anything about her that is more noticeable than her intelligence, it is most definitely her unquenchable curiosity. _He mused.

"Yes." He laughed a small bit. "Yes. When you return, I will teach you."

"I'll be holding you to that promise." She had told him. Maglor laughed and Veronica had left a short while later.

**Author's note: Because midnight plot bunnies are the worst and I truly believe that someone, **_**someone **_**would have eventually approached Maglor in his wanderings on the shores of Middle Earth. This is my first piece of writing for The Silmarillion, but I think I'll be doing more eventually. *Please note that this has been revised and much of it has been re-written. Though I thank those who read and reviewed the first time, I ask that you do so again. I love to hear what others think of my writing! So please, read and review!* **


	2. Chapter 2

Sunset Companions

**DISLAIMER: I still don't own The Silmarillion or any of Tolkien's works. Veronica the OC is mine and that's all I own in this. **

Veronica returned to the beach the next year with her family. She told her parents she would be down by the water and went to the spot near the last lifeguard chair where she usually met Maglor.

"Hello again!" she smiled. Maglor chuckled.

"It is good to see you again as well." He replied.

"So…You promised to teach me how to play a harp when I came back." She stated.

"That I did." He laughed. Veronica smiled brightly. Maglor then gave her his small harp, positioned her hands and taught her a scale or two. Every night during that particular visit, he taught her more and more.

_That does it. I'm going to be a musician when I grow up. _The now sixteen-year-old concluded on the last night of her stay in California for that year.

"This is what I want to do when I grow up, Maglor." She stated.

"You want to be a musician?" he asked.

"Yes." She replied. Maglor smiled at her.

"I am sure you will be an incredible harpist someday." He told her. He then smirked slightly. "Until then, you shall have to play that scale again, you missed a note." He added. Veronica swatted his arm and they both laughed a bit. She played the scale he'd been teaching her again.

*Page Break*

"I did it." Veronica stated when she returned to that beach in California at age twenty-one.

"Did what?" Maglor asked. The (still quite young, in Maglor's eyes) woman sat down in the sand beside him.

"Became a musician as a career. My parents helped me buy a harp of my own and I play with an orchestra in New York now." She told him. Maglor laughed and pat his friend's shoulder.

"I knew someday you would. I am very proud of you, my friend." Maglor told her honestly.

"Thanks." Veronica replied, blushing slightly.

*Page Break*

Ten years after Veronica first met Maglor she went to their beach (she had begun calling it theirs some time ago) at sunset and found herself alone. There were no other people; no lifeguards, no tourists and most concerning of all, no Maglor. At first she was confused.

_Where is he? He's not here…He's always here! Where could he have gone? What happened to him? _She thought. Soon, Veronica began to panic. She took a few steps forward, not knowing what to do. She stood up on her toes and scanned the area with her eyes. There was no sign of life anywhere that she could see.

"Maglor?" she called to the empty beach. "Maglor!" she repeated, a bit louder with more of her panic showing in her tone. She continued in this way and began to search the beach. After an amount of time she did not bother to keep track of, she returned to their spot near the lifeguard chair furthest away from the boardwalk.

_Nothing. How could there be nothing? _She wondered as she flopped unceremoniously onto the sand. The answer she had been simultaneously hoping for and dreading hit her like a ton of bricks. _He's gone back to Valinor. The Valar decided to let him go back and they sent a ship to come get him. He's gone home. _Veronica realized.

She felt tears well up in her eyes, though whether they were tears of joy or sadness she either could not tell or simply did not care. She cried. She cried for a long while there all by herself.

After drying her eyes, she looked around the beach, memorizing the surroundings. _I won't be coming back here. There's no real reason anymore now that my cousin has moved and Maglor has gone home. Besides, I never liked this city. _She concluded.

Suddenly, she noticed something odd near the lifeguard chair. Getting up, she walked over and realized the aforementioned something odd was a package of sorts. It was wrapped in what seemed to be the brown paper bags she had packed lunch for school in when she was young.

She held the package in her arms and sat down a way's away from the lifeguard chair to open it. A strangled sob escaped her lips and she struggled not to cry again when she opened the package. Inside was Maglor's small harp (the very same one he had taught Veronica to play on) and a folded up piece of what she still referred to as printer paper. She assumed there was a note written on the paper and picked it up and unfolded it.

_My dear friend Veronica,_

_ If you are reading this letter, I am gone. As it turns out, my hoping was not in vain. A ship came out of Aman just after your last visit and I have gone home. Do not despair, my friend. I shall be all right. I hope you shall be as well, wherever it is that your life takes you. I look forward to the day we meet again. In the meantime, I have left you this small harp. I know you will recognize it as the very one I always had with me and that I taught you to play on. I am leaving it to you as something to remember me by. I am very proud of you, Veronica. And I wish you all the luck in the world. I truly do. _

_Your friend,_

_Maglor_

She read the note in a whisper to herself several times, just to be sure that she had been right and that he had gone home. After a moment or two, she cried again, though this time she was sure they were tears of joy. After who-knows-how-many-thousands-of-years, Maglor (more recently one of Veronica's closest friends) had finally been able to return home.

He was a great friend, and she would miss him terribly. However, at the bottom of her heart, she was glad he had gone home. She looked at the setting Sun in the West, and suddenly she could envision the whole scene.

In her mind's eyes, Veronica saw a beautiful white swan ship sailing out of Valinor towards the shore she now sat on. She saw Maglor's shocked face when he saw the ship and realized he was going home. She liked to think it was Maglor's brothers who had come for him, and so she saw him reuniting with them after all the long years. She saw him quickly explaining their friendship and having them wait as he rushed into the city to find a cardboard box and paper to write the note on. She saw the seven of them boarding the ship again and sailing home.

Veronica sat there for a long while, watching the Sun set in the West. Eventually, she took the small harp out of the box it had been in for a year. All her memories of Maglor and their friendship came back to her as she played. She did not try to stop them.

_Remembering is all we have in the end isn't it? Because nothing lasts forever. I don't want to forget anything, be it good bad or somewhere in the middle. It's good to remember. History does not remember Maglor too kindly. But I will always remember him as one of my best friends. I look forward to the day I see you again too, my friend. _Veronica mused. As the Sun finally dipped below the horizon, she stopped playing.

**Author's note: Because I like to think that Maglor was able to go back to Valinor eventually. And because I am a sucker for happy-ish endings. *Please note that this has been revised and much of it has been re-written. Though I thank those who read and reviewed the first time, I ask that you do so again. I love to hear what others think of my writing! So please, read and review!* **


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